Baseball, would love critique...

[Sebastian]

Thanks!

[Sean Dempsey]

Even though the highlights will wash out, I'd brighten it up. Too bad the sun wasn't on the other side.

and just preferance, but I'd crop it down to the catcher and runner.

[SmartWombat]

I like the backlighting, brings up the dust beautifully that you wouldn't get in a front lit shot without serious touching up. I assume from the other photos of yours I've seen that this was deliberate.
I love the motion blur in that dust, gives the sense of suddenly arrested movement vey nicely.

I agree with Sean it looks a little on the dark, flat side where it's not got that edge lighting.
Can you selectively brighten the players up a bit and leave the background? Like dodging and burning only digitally - I know what I'd do to my photos but not how to do it in software yet.

I've got a fuzzy monitor and my eyes are tired, but where is the focus?
It looks to me like #15 is really sharp, #14 a little less so, and the guy on the left a little less.
But on the other hand #14 is moving more
The blur in the dust by #14's foot shows you weren't using a shutter speed fast enough to stop all the action so it could just as easily be movement.
Or it's all an artefact of having to reduce down to 600x364 and the original is perfect.
Or it could be just me ... yeah, most likely it's my eyesight

Cropping, I'm not sure. I find half #15's head distracting.
I would crop at the height of the bar behind the chain link, at #15's shoulder height.

But I am known at work for cropping tooooo much. Well more actually for zooming too tight when taking the picture and just pinching off people's fingers. Our graphic artists are trying to cure me of that, but they still keep using my shots in the company magazine.

[SunnySideUp]

I am not a big baseball fan but that is a beautiful shot. The guys on the left side of the background are a little distacting but not much. I would keep the guy on the right but since his head is cropped you can probably crop a little tighter on him.

[Sebastian]

Thanks everybody.

The general concensus seems to be:

Backlighting works
Cropping number 15 is a must
Timing could be better

Smarwombat,

Thanks for going into detail. Sharpness is pretty much dead-on, the players are all equally in focus. I think number 15 looks more crisp due to how the light frames him, very contrast, makes it look sharper to me too, but the original proves otherwise. As for the dust, I do want some blur to help show the action, I don't want to toally freeze them. And to me it seems like your eyes are doing OK.

Sean,

I tried to brighten it like you suggested. Didn't save the changes, but I didn't feel it would work for this image. It really lost a lot of the backlight drama. That just comes down to personal preference though.

Sunny,

Thanks for your comment and kind words.

[VT Mike]

I like the shot, the backlighting adds a lot to it. As for number 15, I think it is a better image with him than it would be without him. It's just unfortunate that the rest of his head isn't in there. I did a curve adjustment and increased the contrast a bit. What do you think?

[Sebastian]

I like the shot, the backlighting adds a lot to it. As for number 15, I think it is a better image with him than it would be without him. It's just unfortunate that the rest of his head isn't in there. I did a curve adjustment and increased the contrast a bit. What do you think?

Mike,

You did a nice job. I just can't decide between the two. I like the detail you brought out in the foreground, but I also don't like the brighter background. I'm splitting hairs here, I know...

Side by side they both look good, I just don't know which I like better. If this had to go in by deadlin I would have never messed with the curves, so it may be overkill to even be discussing it, but I love having many tricks up my sleeve. Thanks for the example!

[VT Mike]

Mike,

You did a nice job. I just can't decide between the two. I like the detail you brought out in the foreground, but I also don't like the brighter background. I'm splitting hairs here, I know...

Side by side they both look good, I just don't know which I like better. If this had to go in by deadlin I would have never messed with the curves, so it may be overkill to even be discussing it, but I love having many tricks up my sleeve. Thanks for the example!

Yep, that is sort of how I felt after I made the changes - in some ways it helped and in other ways it hurt. The original looks a little too dark, but after my changes it seems to have lost some of its mood. It's a tough call.

[JDub]

Mike,

You did a nice job. I just can't decide between the two. I like the detail you brought out in the foreground, but I also don't like the brighter background. I'm splitting hairs here, I know...

Side by side they both look good, I just don't know which I like better. If this had to go in by deadlin I would have never messed with the curves, so it may be overkill to even be discussing it, but I love having many tricks up my sleeve. Thanks for the example!

Just add an adjustment layer in PS and then make the adjustments, and alter the edit mask to get rid of the background elements. This will give you the additional brightness on the players, but keep the background darker.

Here is a quick version of what I am talking about. You can see the background looks just like the original, but the players are similar brightness (adjusted via levels) as the second image posted.

[Photo-John]

I use Photoshop adjustment layers and masks in almost every photo I print or post to the Web. They're the digital equivalent of dodging and burning. Actually, they're way, way better. Adustment layers don't affect the original file and you can edit them indefinitely. Plus, you can also create masks for your adjustment layers so that you only change specific parts of your images. This is all a normal part of my workflow.

[another view]

Great shot, Seb! Sports, yet has some artistic qualities too. I'm trying to decide which of the three versions I see here works best - I'm still leaning towards your original. The backlit dust stands out pretty well and the background is fairly dark (good). The other two have good points too, but the first shot being a little darker - the highlights are more dramatic. Good work.

I guess we'll stay away from Starved Rock for a while (in Utica IL where the tornado hit). The sky was a little green here (90 mi north) in the late evening but that was all we saw - fortunately. Driving through there I thought it would be an interesting place to shoot - but didn't.

[VT Mike]

Just add an adjustment layer in PS and then make the adjustments, and alter the edit mask to get rid of the background elements. This will give you the additional brightness on the players, but keep the background darker.

Here is a quick version of what I am talking about. You can see the background looks just like the original, but the players are similar brightness (adjusted via levels) as the second image posted.

Cool, I was hoping there would be someone here that knows more about photoshop than I do
This is an improvement, but I think I still like the way the dust looks in the original best.

[JDub]

Cool, I was hoping there would be someone here that knows more about photoshop than I do
This is an improvement, but I think I still like the way the dust looks in the original best.

That's the beauty of the layer mask, if you like the way the dust looks in the original, you can just use a soft edge brush and delete out the section of the layer mask that covers the dust.

[Sebastian]

OK, you guys need to stop. This isn't a fine art pint, it's not going to be sold and hung on a wall. It was a news shot that wasn't even good enough to run. The suggestions given here are great, but for this image, you are doing nothing but wasting your time. Yes, I could brighten it, yes I could use masks, but I had about twenty mintes to go through 260 shots, pick a good one and give it to the editor. I didn't find a good one. Luckily the other photog had me covered.

I think we get carried away with trying to improve everything we shoot. I really appreciate the input, but I don't want this to go on, this shot simply isn't worth it. These examples could be shown in other forums, on better images. This thing just isn't worth our time anymore.

BTW, I would have brightened the entire image and then used the history brush to paint in the areas from the original I liked. Much faster than messing with masks. Masks are great for really fine detail work, stuff that'll be blown up and needs lots of flexibility, stuff that is worth the added time to get it really close to perfect.

Photoshop is incredibly complex, and two people can do the same thing in the same time, without ever using the same tools or methods. I hope to someday totally grasp the damn thing.

So please guys, unless you really, really want to, don't waste your time anymore. This horse is dead, let's stop flogging it.

[Sebastian]

Great shot, Seb! Sports, yet has some artistic qualities too. I'm trying to decide which of the three versions I see here works best - I'm still leaning towards your original. The backlit dust stands out pretty well and the background is fairly dark (good). The other two have good points too, but the first shot being a little darker - the highlights are more dramatic. Good work.

I guess we'll stay away from Starved Rock for a while (in Utica IL where the tornado hit). The sky was a little green here (90 mi north) in the late evening but that was all we saw - fortunately. Driving through there I thought it would be an interesting place to shoot - but didn't.

Steve,

I too am leaning towards the original. Only very slightly due to the mood, but primarily because all the diting simply couldn't create a significantly more striking image than the original. At this point, with all the work put into it, if we're still having a hard time deciding then there's no point in even bothering, just use the original and don't waste the time, you know?

I HATE that...I'll spend a few hours trying many different things on a shot only to realize nothing makes it any better than the original, just slightly different, and then it soeaks in how many other things I could have done in the same amount of time, and I just bow my head in shame.

Editing is a double-edged sword. Sometimes I find myself messing with a file just because I can, no vision behind it whatsoever, just because I have the gear and feel I should use it.

[JDub]

OK, you guys need to stop. This isn't a fine art pint, it's not going to be sold and hung on a wall. It was a news shot that wasn't even good enough to run. The suggestions given here are great, but for this image, you are doing nothing but wasting your time. Yes, I could brighten it, yes I could use masks, but I had about twenty mintes to go through 260 shots, pick a good one and give it to the editor. I didn't find a good one. Luckily the other photog had me covered.

I think we get carried away with trying to improve everything we shoot. I really appreciate the input, but I don't want this to go on, this shot simply isn't worth it. These examples could be shown in other forums, on better images. This thing just isn't worth our time anymore.

BTW, I would have brightened the entire image and then used the history brush to paint in the areas from the original I liked. Much faster than messing with masks. Masks are great for really fine detail work, stuff that'll be blown up and needs lots of flexibility, stuff that is worth the added time to get it really close to perfect.

Photoshop is incredibly complex, and two people can do the same thing in the same time, without ever using the same tools or methods. I hope to someday totally grasp the damn thing.

So please guys, unless you really, really want to, don't waste your time anymore. This horse is dead, let's stop flogging it.

Just trying to introduce people to layer masks and their power if they weren't familiar with them. I wasted about 5 minutes total.

[Sebastian]

Just trying to introduce people to layer masks and their power if they weren't familiar with them. I wasted about 5 minutes total.

Like I said, if you want to, feel free. I just kind fo felt guilty because I am not getting anything out of this thread anymore, and I don't wnat people to go on for my sake. I realize though that this has gone beyond my image, so do as you wish.

I don't want you or anyone else to think I don't appreciate their time though, I do, and the input has been great. Thank you.

[another view]

Editing is a double-edged sword. Sometimes I find myself messing with a file just because I can, no vision behind it whatsoever, just because I have the gear and feel I should use it.

This could be bad! Fortunately, your eye is good enough to know what works and doesn't. This isn't true of everyone... I guess in this case I'd do the same thing - maybe a little level adjustment or something else quick but what else can you do or need to do. Still, it's a cool shot.